1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns feeding and driving mechanisms, and particularly such apparatus suited to automatic feeding and insertion of elongated articles such as dowel pins.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Requirements of automated assembly operations dictate that the design incorporated and utilized therein provide maximum simplicity and reliability of operation. Insertion devices for such parts as dowels, stakes, roll pins, etc., typically required an escapement control for separation of the items as they are fed from a bulk source and a separate interrelated control for timing of the driving or insertion mechanism, these controls often being electromechanical in nature, such that combined with the complexity inherent in the design, overall reliability is not high.
Some of these devices have utilized revolving cylinder type feed mechanisms which receive parts from bulk with a driver forcing the parts into the chambers in synchronism with the rotation of the cylinder. This arrangement obviously introduces an additional complexity factor to the design with attendant reductions in the reliability factor.
In some designs a driver operated mechanism is relied on to eliminate the interrelated controls, but the particular indexing mechanisms tend to be complex and unreliable particularly when satisfying a design requirement of such applications that the cylinder be fixed in position at all times except when rotating to prevent inadvertent mispositioning by an operator, which mispositioning could cause destructive accidents.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an insertion device for elongated articles such as dowels which does not require separate interrelated escapement and driver controls and which utilizes a rotary feed cylinder without requiring a force feeding arrangement for loading of the cylinder.
A further object is to provide an indexing mechanism for the rotary feed cylinder of very simple design which insures accurate positioning thereof at all times.